By installing the latest Maple IQ system on all 35 vehicles in its regional distribution fleet, the Midlands Co-op has not only benefited from increased load security but also from having a system that provides performance monitoring information for its daily delivery schedules. At the same time, the system is estimated to be saving the Midlands Co-op in excess of £200,000 in administration and process costs over a five year period. All 35 vehicles in the fleet, from 17 tonne rigid vehicles through to 38 tonne tractor units, deliver both refrigerated and ambient products. Each one has been fitted with a Maple IQ system from the Maple Group primarily to increase load security and integrity during the transportation of goods from the company’s two distribution centres in Leicester to its 220 retail stores across the West and East Midlands. At the same time, the Midlands Co-op and Maple are looking to further expand the system so that it can carry an electronic manifest with the load, thereby acting as a method of tracking valuable assets such as roll cages and other unit load containers. According to Robin Farrell, Distribution Manager at Midlands Co-op, “We worked in close partnership with Maple to ensure that the new technology of Maple IQ provided us with the level of security that we were seeking and Maple fully understood our specific requirements, giving us superb personal service.” “Maple IQ not only gives us complete security and load integrity from the warehouses to our retail outlets, which is an invaluable benefit to our business, but it is estimated to be generating administration and process savings somewhere in the region of £200k over a five year period as well,” added Robin Farrell. Midlands Co-op operates two neighbouring distribution centres in Leicester and each vehicle at these centres has a Maple IQ system fitted. Maple also supplied 300 key fob transponders as well as USB desk top reader/programmer units, hand/held data downloader and Maple IQ software. When a vehicle is loaded at the distribution centre, the body of the vehicle or the trailer is sealed using a Maple IQ transponder. It is the responsibility of the store supervisory management at each delivery outlet to then check that the seal has not been broken before commencing the unload/delivery procedure. It is also the store management’s responsibility to ensure that the vehicle or trailer is re-sealed for the next leg of the delivery chain. Each store has its own personal ID key fob to reseal the vehicle. |
